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Both the Rockbridge County High School boys and girls swimming teams defeated Alleghany in their home meet at the Rockbridge Aquatics Center on Friday night in Lexington, with senior Spencer Pfaff swimming a state-qualifying time in the boys’ 100-yard butterfly and setting a new school record in the boys’ 200-yard individual medley, winning both races. Parry McCluer High School senior Olive King, swam a state-qualifying time of 5:46.63 in winning the girls’ 500-yard freestyle.
The RC boys cruised to a 119-18 win over Alleghany, a nondistrict rival, while the RC girls earned a 68-58 victory over the Cougars. King, PM’s lone swimmer, was credited with 12 points.
Pfaff won the boys’ 100-yard butterfly in 54.5 seconds, qualifying by time for the Class 3 state meet, and claimed the boys’ 200-yard individual medley in 2:04.8.
In addition to the girls’ 500-yard freestyle, King won the girls’ 200-yard freestyle, finishing in 2:04.84. She had already qualified for the Class 1 and 2 state meet in the 200-yard freestyle in the first week of December. In total, she has qualified in five events.
For fun, King teamed up with three eighth-graders – Dasha Billias, Lelia McCown and Reagan Imler – to swim the girls’ 200-yard freestyle relay, which did not count.
Another strong performance for the RC boys came from freshman Ru Bucy, who won the 500-yard freestyle in a personal-record time of 5:59.48.
The RC boys won seven individual races and all three relays.
Freshman Jacob Barney won the boys’ 200-yard freestyle in 2:25.82 and claimed the 100-yard freestyle in 1:02.93.
In the boys’ 50-yard freestyle, freshman Leif Guse won in 28.07 seconds, and senior Roman Stanley placed second in 29.23.
Freshman Ben Gresham won the boys’ 100-yard backstroke in 1:22.24, and junior River Jenkins captured the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:29, with Bucy placing second in 1:33.81.
The RC boys won the 200-yard medley in 2:08.26 with team members Stanley, Gresham, Guse and Bucy. In the 200-yard freestyle relay, Pfaff and Jenkins teamed up with Stanley and Bucy to win in 1:48.04. For the 400-yard freestyle, Guse and Barney joined forces with Gresham and Pfaff to win in 4:12.09.
The RC girls won two individual races and the 200-yard freestyle relay.
RC sophomore Camille Fuentes won the girls’ 200-yard individual medley in 3:23.29, while junior teammate Lexi Walters claimed the 100-yard freestyle in 1:14.39.
The RC girls won the 200-yard freestyle in 2:13.69. Team members were Fuentes, Walters and seniors Rio Bucy and Willow Moles.
In the 200-yard medley relay, the RC girls placed second in 2:36.7 with team members Fuentes, Bucy, Moles and freshman Liesl Niebur.
After the holiday break, the Wildcats will compete in the Ben Hair Memorial Meet at the University of Virginia Aquatic Center in Charlottesville on Wednesday, Jan. 8. Their next home meet is scheduled for Friday, Jan. 10, at 6 p.m. against Valley District rival Spotswood at the Rockbridge Aquatics Center.
The full story and photos from Friday’s meet will be in our Dec. 31 newspaper due to the early deadline for the Christmas Eve newspaper.
